


Dust Covered Eyes

by pidgethepidgeon



Series: Beetlejuice Short Stories [8]
Category: Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Little bit of angst, Lydia introduces Wendy to her non-traditional family, Lydia is an awkward lesbian, Lydia x Wendy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:26:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21793723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pidgethepidgeon/pseuds/pidgethepidgeon
Summary: Lydia had been dating Wendy for two months when Wendy wanted to meet her family. Hesitantly Lydia agrees but makes the family agree to not do anything embarrassing to scare Wendy away.
Relationships: Lydia Deetz/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Beetlejuice Short Stories [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1556005
Comments: 4
Kudos: 89





	Dust Covered Eyes

Two months. It was absolutely crazy to Lydia that her and Wendy had been officially dating for two months now. It took some awkwardness at first with neither of them being sure at first if the other wanted something more than friendship despite the obvious signals they were sending each other. It was a grey area for the first two weeks where they would hold hands in the hallways at school, or Wendy would randomly run and hug Lydia from behind. Their friends would remark that they would make a cute couple, or how they were practically an old married couple already but being young they weren’t sure what to make of their relationship. It the end it took Lydia calling Wendy frantically about how she hadn’t picked out a Halloween costume and when she asked Wendy what she should be the response was “my girlfriend.” to which Lydia blushed and agreed but on the condition that she still got to be it when Halloween was over. Ever since then they had been a perfectly happy couple. 

They were hanging out at Wendy’s house one afternoon watching some cheesy show that neither of them were really interested in but were just using it as an excuse to be with each other that afternoon. Wendy’s mother ran off to go pick up a pizza that they had ordered for dinner that night leaving the two of them alone. Being teenagers left at home with no parents around that only lead to one thing….they impulsively built a blanket fort around the television and brought Wendy’s dog with them while they made a mess on the floor after throwing popcorn at each other. About thirty minutes into the episode Lydia was leaning on Wendy and she lamented, “Your mom is really cool.”

Wendy just kind of laughed in response, “She’s alright I guess. I wish she wouldn’t be so embarrassing whenever you came over.”

“Oh trust me my family is so much more embarrassing.”

“I would believe you but you still haven’t had me over your house yet. I haven’t even gotten to meet most of them!”

“You got to meet my dad and Delia.” Lydia pointed out

Wendy giggled, “Oh my god at the ice cream shop like over a month ago! I’d hardly call that a good first impression, I was wearing that stupid uniform and my hair was a disaster that night. I mean I’ve been dating their daughter for plural months now, don’t you think I should properly meet them and all? Come on, I’m charming, I’m polite. I’m like a well-trained dog, you don’t have to be embarrassed to show me to them.”

“I’m not embarrassed of you! I’m embarrassed of them, my family is far from traditional. I’m just worried it will throw you off how overbearing they can be.” 

“Lydia, my mom literally texts you. You don’t have to be worried about me getting weirded out by overbearing parents.”

“It’s a little bit more than my dad and Delia,” Lydia held back a shy smiled, she figured that the longer she put it off the more awkward it would be to tell Wendy about her entire family. She took in a deep breath, “Okay I’ll tell you but you have to promise not to laugh at me. I’m being one thousand percent serious, okay? Do you promise?”

Wendy snickered, “Okay I promise, what’s the big secret anyway?”

“So I live with my dad and Delia, that’s established you already know that, but I also live with three ghosts and they’re like a family to me now too. The two ghosts that live in the attic, they’re named Adam and Barbara, they’re really nice and they’re kinda like a second set of parents to me I guess? And then there’s this other half-ghost half-demon, his name is Beetlejuice, he’s at the house more often than I’d prefer. I guess he’s like a brother to me? That or the really annoying cousin at family reunions who always asks if you have games on your phone. Oh and also there’s the cats, but you already knew about them.” Lydia paused looking at Wendy for any kind of response, just bracing herself for the worst. That Wendy would laugh in her face and think she was so stupid and a liar and not want to be with her anymore. Lydia sat up off of Wendy to get a better look at her face and was just shocked by the expression. Wendy had a goofy grin on her face like she was about to laugh, but not in a mocking kind of way. Lydia relaxed a bit but still wanted the verbal response. 

“Liddy I wish I could say I was surprised, but you are exactly the kind of person to live in a haunted house and love it. Okay, okay, so you live with ghosts? That’s...okay, well if they’re like a family to you I want to meet them all! You brought my mom chocolates the first time you met her what do ghosts like?”

“You’re okay with this? Like no questions at all?” Lydia asked completely blown away at Wendy’s lack of doubt, “Like nothing at all? You’ve just accepted the fact that I do in fact live with ghosts?”

“Duh? Why would you lie to me about something like that, and so elaborately? I’d believe you less if you told me that you had a typical white picket fence family”

“Wow, alright then. Good to know that you trust me.” Lydia smiled

“I do have one question though.”

“Shoot.”

“Beetlejuice?” Wendy asked with a wrinkled nose, “What kind of name is that?”

Lydia laughed, “We usually just call him BJ and trust me he is just as chaotic as his name is.”

Still astonished about how well Wendy took the reveal of her whole family situation Lydia immediately went to work trying to prepare everyone at the house for them all meeting Wendy. She was oddly nervous at the whole situation and she wondered if Wendy felt the same way when she ha Lydia meet her family. They were all so awkward around her at first, the only person who wasn’t trying desperately to not embarrass themselves was Wendy’s little brother Silas who upon meeting Lydia for the first time promptly told her that he “hopes drinks lots of milk because she needs to get taller.” Wendy was absolutely mortified but Lydia thought it was hilarious, the boy was about the same age as Skye so she didn’t take offense to the jab at her shortness. 

The most difficult person to get on board, as expected, was Beetlejuice. They were hanging out in the attic painting their nails like almost every Saturday, it had become a sort of tradition of theirs when Lydia started school and wasn’t home as much. It gave Beetlejuice a chance to tease Lydia, and a planning opportunity for any pranks they were going to do that week.

“Come on, just do it for me!” Lydia begged

“I don’t even know what what’s her face wants to even meet me? It’s weird that you want your ex to meet your new girl.”

She punched him hard in the arm, hating it every time that he teased about how they technically were married at one point, “Shut up! God no, you said yourself it was a green card thing stop being weird.”

“I’m joking! I’m joking!” He replied covering his face with his arms while Lydia tried to smack him with a pillow, “You’re like the annoying little sister that my mom never had.”

“Little sister?” Lydia scowled, “I’m sorry please remind me who had to rush home from school one day because you lost your ice cube and then had to explain to you that a puddle hadn’t replaced said IceCube but that ice...in fact, melts.”

Beetlejuice fake sniffled, “I’m still mourning you asshole”

“Look can you please just act semi-normal around Wendy? I will literally pay you money if you behave.” 

Beetlejuice considered this, “I don’t want your money kid, besides wouldn’t Walton-”

“Wendy..I’m gay?”

“Wouldn’t Wilhomena want to get to know your real family? You know you really shouldn’t change your personality for someone just because you think it will make them like you, it makes you seem desperate and the last thing I would want is to make a terrible first impression on this girl you’re madly in love with.”

“I am NOT madly in love with her!” Lydia shrieked knowing there were tints of pink on her ears

“That’s not what I overhead when you were pathetically musing to Barbara about how “beautiful, and smart, and funny” this girl was. That doesn’t sound like just gal-pals to me.”

“She’s my girlfriend!”

“So you are madly in love with her?”

“No I….I just-”

“Come on just admit it. You looovve her, and you want the whole world to know.”

“I guess I love her…” Lydia mumbled, hoping Beetlejuice wouldn’t hear. She guessed wrong

“What was that? You love her? That’ll be something fun to share when I meet this chick for the first time. Girls love honestly, remember that

“Beetlejuice you CANNOT tell her I said that. Come on I am actually begging now, I will DIE if you say that to her. I don’t know if she feels the same way, we’ve only been dating for two months!”

“Relax relax, don’t have a tantrum. I’m not going to tell Winona how bad you’ve got it for her.” Beetlejuice looked at his fingernails examining the color he had picked, “But I can’t promise I’ll behave.”

Lydia smacked him again before adding a quick thank you for promising to not ruin her life and relationship by revealing how Lydia felt. It was a lot easier to get everyone else on board. Delia, Adam, and Barbara were thrilled that Lydia was bringing a girl home and while her dad tried to put on a tough “nobody is good enough for my baby girl” act, Lydia knew how happy Charles was that she was happy. As the day got closer to when Wendy was going to come over for dinner Lydia felt anxiety coursing through her chest. Everyone was trying to reassure her that everything was going to be okay but she still couldn’t help but worry that everything was going to go horribly wrong. Wendy had such a typical family and Lydia didn’t want to scare her off with her unique family, but she also didn’t want to hide this part of her life from anybody that she dated. She loved her strange and unusual family, they were always there for her, always supporting her, and they would always hold a special place in her heart. 

“Liddy I’m sure I’m going to love them.” Wendy assured her as they walked up to the door of her home, hand in hand, “If they’re anything like you I’ll love them.”

“Okay as long as you’re sure because we can just go hang out at your house again if you’re having second thoughts. I just want to make sure you’re not nervous about this.”

“I think that you’re the nervous one, just relax alright?” Wendy put her hand on Lydia’s face and Lydia stood on her tiptoes as she leaned in for a quick kiss, “It’s going to be perfectly fine.”

Lydia took in a shaky breath and lead Wendy in through the door and around the house. Everyone was already sitting in the kitchen and she could tell how badly Barbara was holding back the urge to gush about how adorable it was that Lydia had a girlfriend. Lydia gave her a stern look and Barbara glanced away while she tried to gain composure. She noticed how everybody was there but a certain demon was absent. She wasn’t sure if she was mad or relieved that Beetlejuice wasn’t there. On one hand, she wanted Wendy to meet the family in one sitting so she didn’t have to go through the awkwardness again, but on the other hand, now Lydia didn’t need to worry about Beetlejuice ruining everything by playing some elaborate trick or revealing to Wendy what Lydia had said in the attic

“Guys this is Wendy. Wendy this is my family.”

“You weren’t kidding when you said they were ghosts.” Wendy whispered, “I knew you weren’t lying but like actually seeing ghosts...with my own eyes. Wow.” She turned her attention back to the family looking at both of them eagerly, “Hey!”

Charles was the first to greet her he walked over the table and went in for an awkward handshake, “I’ve been hearing a lot about you, Wendy. It’s a pleasure to get to meet the girl my daughter’s been spending most of her time with, more so than she spends doing her math homework.”

“Dad!” Lydia hissed

“I’m kidding! Wendy, it’s really nice to meet you, well for the second time. Can I just say 

you sure know how to make a good ice cream sundae.”

“Oh thanks, Mr. Deetz, when you work for tips you kinda become a perfectionist at those kinds of things.” Wendy laughed to herself, “So you must be Delia?”

Delia looked the girl up and down before announcing, “She has a good energy Lydia, I like her.”

Lydia tried to laugh the remark off sheepishly but Wendy didn’t seem to mind the remark, and went on to compliment the crystal necklace Delia was wearing saying how she wears a similar one when she is taking tests because she thinks it’s lucky. Lydia made a mental note to not joke about crystal magic around Wendy again as she introduced Wendy to the pseudo-ghost parents. 

“This is Adam and this is Barbara, they live in the attic.”

Still in awestruck that she was meeting actual ghosts Wendy stammered out some form of greeting but Barbara went right in for a hug while Adam, similar to Charles, tried and failed miserably to pull off some kind of strict dad greeting. Wendy’s eye widened in amazement when she realized that the ghosts were solid but definitely not alive. “This is literally the coolest thing ever.”

Barbara smiled, “Yeah we think it’s pretty neat too. It’s fun to switch between solid and not, makes getting down the stairs so much easier when you can kind of just fall through the floor or appear in the kitchen at will.”

“I bet!” Wendy went to sit down at the kitchen table and Lydia sat down next to her. Charles ran into the kitchen to bring out the dinner he made. He had never been a good cook so Lydia was nervous about what was going to come in but Adam assured her that he closely supervised Charle’s cooking. They started eating dinner just making polite chit chat, asking about how Wendy was doing in school, asking about her family, and plans that the girls had for the upcoming weekend. Everything was going very smoothly and Lydia couldn’t have been more pleased that Wendy was getting along with her family. She would have considered it a perfectly relaxed evening if a certain demon had randomly appeared in the middle of dessert.

“Sorry I’m late everyone, but in my defense, I wasn’t ever planning on coming on time. I wanted to be fashionably late.”

Lydia tapped her fingers on the table impatiently, “You’re literally two hours late!”

“Fashion is always changing Lyds, look it up.” Beetlejuice hovered over to the table and piled a stack of cookies onto his plate which he promptly proceeded to practically inhale much to Lydia’s dismay but Wendy’s amazement.

“It’s Wendy right?” Beetlejuice asked in a tone that Lydia honestly didn’t hate, she briefly thought maybe the introduction would go alright by Beetlejuice standards, “I’m Beetlejuice or BJ, or ghost with the most. Whichever you prefer kid. Just don’t call me Lawrence, I’ll kill you if you call me Lawrence.”

“He’s kidding! He’s kidding!” Charles frantically tried to laugh it off as a joke when he saw the fear in Lydia’s eyes

“Nice to meet you BJ, Lydia told me a bit about you.”

“I could say the same thing.” Beetlejuice gave a teasing wink to a now fuming Lydia, “I have to say, Chuck, the cookies were a bit dry. Hey, Wendy want to see a magic trick?”

“NO!” Lydia shouted

“Sure?” Wendy replied, giving Beetlejuice all the permission he needed to animate all the plates and make them spin around the table and fly around everyone’s heads. Wendy’s grin grew bigger as the display went on and Lydia relaxed a little bit when she realized that Wendy was enjoying herself and that she wasn’t about to run out of the house screaming. Lydia gave a remorseful smile to Beetlejuice thankful that he found a way to still be himself but not embarrass Lydia in front of her girlfriend. The rest of the night went on full of laughter and fin conversation. By the end of the evening, Wendy thanked everyone for the delicious meal and wished them a goodnight when they went upstairs to go to bed. Lydia had already told her parents that they were having a sleepover in the living room, her father wasn’t exactly on board at first not feeling comfortable letting Lydia spend the night with her girlfriend but when Lydia compromised by promising to stay in the living room Charles reluctantly agreed but had Adam and Barbara on tap to check in on them periodically through the night.

Lydia and Wendy were sitting on the couch, sharing a blanket as they scrolled through Netflix trying to find a show or movie to have in the background while they either talked or played games with each other on their phones. Lydia had a winning streak in pool against Wendy and though every time Wendy threatened that the streak would come to a dramatic end Lydia always ended up winning, and Wendy pouted for five minutes before challenging her again. They were both getting tired around three in the morning and after bidding a truthful goodnight to Adam and Barbara Lydia came back downstairs with blankets and pillows for them to sleep on. Wendy took the couch and Lydia took the loveseat partly because it was polite to give the guest the bigger sleeping place, and Lydia was tiny enough to fit on the loveseat comfortably. They were still whispering to each other while they tried to fall asleep but the topics were becoming more and more incoherent the closer to sleep they got.

Wendy asked, “So like how did this all happen? Like how did you realize you were living in a haunted house?”

“It’s a complicated story that involves Adam and Barbara trying to scare us into moving out, Beetlejuice tricking me, and me briefly getting lost in the underworld.”

“You say that so casually.” Wendy snorted, “You literally have the most interesting life out of anyone I’ve met. They only interesting thing about me is how my older brother Levi got super drunk at my  Bat mitzvah and fell off the stage and into the cake.”

Lydia chuckled, “Wasn’t he only like seventeen?”

“Yeah! That’s what made it even funnier, my mom and dad were so pissed at him. I was mainly just upset that my cake got ruined. Silas didn’t discriminate, he ate it right off the floor.”

“Seems typical of him.”

They both laughed and then there was a silence before Wendy whispered, “Can I ask you a question?” Lydia nodded hoping Wendy could see it in the dark, “If Adam and Barbara are ghosts….is your mom a ghost too? It’s just that you never mention her being around the house and if ghosts are real, I would think that she would haunt the house too I guess?”

Lydia instantly tensed up, “No my mom’s not a ghost. Not that I know of anyway. It’s kind of complicated, my mom is probably in the Netherworld which is like the afterlife I guess? Once a ghost goes to the Netherworld they can’t come back, Adam and Barbara are only still in the house because they never went there.”

“But that Beetlejuice guy he comes back and forth from the Net-Netherworld?”

Lydia rubbed her eyes sleepily, “Yeah that’s kind of complicated too. He’s half-demon and his mom is kind of the lady in charge of the Netherworld so I guess he just sorta figured out how to go back and forth as he wants? I can summon him from the Netherworld if I wanted to, and I tried to with my mom too but it doesn’t work.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I brought it up. I know it’s a hard thing for you to talk about, I was just curious. I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, it’s okay.” Lydia wiped away a stray tear in her eye, “You don’t need to apologize for asking. I know the whole situation is really confusing and I asked the same questions when I was figuring it all out too. I miss my mom a lot, I wish she was still here even as a ghost just so I could talk to her one more time. I mean she’d love you, I never got the chance to tell her, but I know she would just love you.”

Wendy shifted on the couch to sit up and look over at Lydia who was very evidently trying to hold back tears. She slid out from under her blanket and went over to the loveseat to pull Lydia into a tight hug. When they broke the embrace Lydia rested her head on Wendy’s shoulder and held her hand in her lap, “I’m sorry, I didn’t want to get all emotional.”

“Does it still hurt to think about her?”

Lydia shrugged, “Sometimes, a lot of the time it just hurts to think about all the stuff she’s going to miss in my life. I was only fourteen when she died, I still had so much more that I wanted her to see. She’s never going to see me graduate, or get married, or even have kids one day. It’s the small things sometimes, like this whole you meeting my family thing. I wanted it so badly to go perfect, but it just felt like somebody was missing. She’s never going to get to meet the people that I fall in love with, or give me those cheesy warnings about dating. Everyone here tries their best and I really appreciate it but times like that I still wish my mom was alive.”

“I wish I could have met her too. She is so important to you, and I’d have loved to get to know her.”

“She was pretty cool.” Lydia said with a soft smile

“Well now I know where you get it from.”

She rolled her eyes playfully, “You know you don’t need to charm me anymore, you already got me to date you.”

“Sorry babe I can’t turn off the charm, I’m just a chick magnet that way. I can’t help it.”

“Remind me again why I put up with you?”

“Because you loovvee me.” Wendy teased before giving Lydia a quick peck on the lips

“Yeah I suppose that’s a valid point. Now seriously you can’t share the couch with me my dad will freak if he wakes up to this tomorrow.”

Wendy begrudgingly slinked back to her couch and after a few more minutes of just talking to each other Lydia heard the soft snoring of the other girl and knew she had fallen asleep mid-conversation. Lydia pulled the blanket close to her face trying not to blush whenever she thought about how Wendy knew she loved her. 


End file.
